LB Rocky McIntosh was expected to find a new home with another team. Instead, he reached terms to remain with the Washington Redskins for one more season. (Doggone it! Just yesterday, I deleted Rocky from the Redskins roster we keep here at RHH.)
I feel fan loyalty towards Rocky because of time and service to the team, but he has an uphill battle. His future here depends as much on how well Perry Riley picks up the defense as on anything McIntosh does. Rocky is one of the examples of the mismatch between Redskins personnel and the 3-4 defense.
Redskins punter and Australian citizen Sav Rocca cannot get into the USA to join the team because the government has not yet granted a work visa. Mmm, what? This is just a bureaucracy hang-up by some non-football-aware clerk who does not understand the vital national interests at stake. The man has a job. Give him the dam* visa.
WaPost’s Rick Maese tweeted that free agent Lofa Totupu is visiting Redskins Park Thursday.
John Keim and others are tweeting that S Reed Doughty’s new contract with the Redskins is for a three-year term.
Tweeted Thursday by Phillip Daniels, @PhilDayz93, “Dan Snyder is a class act. I really hope he wins a super bowl in the near future. He deserves to. #Redskins #NoSarcasm”
The Redskins signed free agent C/G Donovan Raiola. The WaPOST’s Mike Jones has the goods on Raiola’s background. Follow the link to here.
Ryan Torain had four screws surgically inserted in his hand and could miss seven to 10 days says Mike Shanahan. Coulda happened to anyone.
Malcolm Kelly experienced “tightness hamstring/groin, sat out Thursday practice,” according to a tweet by Redskins.com. Kelly is expected to practice on Friday. Could be nothing. Or, with Kelly, it could be everything. Message from the coach: ” “Obviously, if you keep on getting hurt, it’s not going to help your chances of making the football team” via tweet by @grantpaulsen.
Kelly now wears jersey No. 14. John Beck now wears jersey No. 12, Kelly’s old number.
Worth mentioning, excerpts Jason Reid’s Thursday’s Washington Post column:
“The NFL’s most successful franchises build through the draft, make wise choices in free agency and develop long-term strategies. New England. Pittsburgh. Green Bay. That’s how the best of the best roll.
“Now, the Washington Redskins are working to join the club. After following the wrong road for so long, the Redskins have found the right path. They’re finally starting at the foundation.
“The Redskins have overhauled their football-operation model, emphasizing stable methods of roster construction instead of the quickest.
“…For the first time in the Daniel Snyder era, scouting and development is valued. Cost-effective free agency is en vogue.” See Reid’s full post here.
NFL.com’s Jason Breer shares Reid’s sentiment in his post Hope in Washington? Redskins change course.
If you are a long-suffering Redskins fan, you know the drill. For too long, the front office substituted name recognition for legitimate scouting reports. Cleverness with the salary cap substituted for true strategic planning. The harder Snyder tried with these methods, the farther he got from any kind of a title. Astute fans wanted to see these changes for seven or eight years now. The great fear was that fans would punish the team at the ticket gate for “rebuilding.”
I have a hunch that fans will roll with Snyder on the reconstruction of the Redskins (Note the four-syllable word to avoid use of the term “rebuild.”) It’s widely accepted that the team ended 2010 with more holes than Swiss cheese, some of them self-inflicted. Big name players were as likely to worsen the problem as to fix it. Were you excited by signing Albert Haynesworth or trading for Donovan McNabb? How many of you even heard of London Fletcher before the Redskins signed him? (Be honest.) Shanahan and Bruce Allen seem to be going for the next London Fletcher.
The rookie Draftees should hit their stride in their third season. Free agent vets will need a year to pick up the schemes. Nobody buys that the ‘Skins will take the division, much less the 2012 Super Bowl. What we need to see is progress through the year, Like Marty Schottenheimer who won eight of his last 11 games in his one season with the Redskins. (Who knew we would look back on that with nostalgia?)
That’s not asking too much.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
